User Reviews

Reviews by ReverendNathan:

2.7/5 rDev -21.1%look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 2 | feel: 2 | overall: 4

Guinness Draught is available in just about every serving type and has many variations. "Extra Cold" is it's bottled and "brought to the grocery store" variety that insists on a set of rules for maximum taste: serve extra cold (as per it's name), keep it in the bottle, and let the nitrogen flow evenly. To review the beer and follow these set regulations puts me at a disadvantage: I can't really shove my nose down the bottle to get a whiff, and since the entire bottle is covered with a sticker, I have no idea what it looks like. What I can do is compare it to previous experience with Guinness in it's other forms.

Guinness has a very interesting taste -- a heavy, mead-like taste and texture are there, but there is a watered-down feel to it (perhaps what makes it so liked). Extra Cold has much of the same, but it's very watery... very, very watered-down. You sort of have to search for the flavor to find it. The next problem is to keep nitrogen flowing, you have to really tilt the bottle... to a chugging degree. It seems to taste better this way than keeping the angle at a minimum. All of this makes the whole experience not enjoyable.

Instead, I'd opt up to the four-pack cans of Guinness. You can pour it into a glass, savor the aroma, and it's full flavor is there. Or best-yet, find it served properly at a local bar. This twelve-pack bottled variety, although convenient, is not the real Guinness taste that makes it the unofficial beer of St. Patty's Day.

More User Reviews:

I've had this on tap, nitro-tap, nitro-bottle, and nitro-can. The nitrogen gives the beer an amazing head, which is certainly my favorite thing about Guinness Draught. The beer is a deep, dark brown (nearly black) with a tan head. The head is comprised of very fine, small bubbles, due to the nitrogen, which provides a very well-defined head that will last for days. Starting with a half-inch head on the top, you are left with a quarter-inch head at the bottom of the glass. Beautiful. Guinness doesn't have a very strong smell, but you can pick up some roasted tones and maybe slight coffee/chocolate, but not much. The taste is full of grains and roasted barley, very slight black coffee, and not much chocolate. Overall, a very average taste - not great, but not bad at all. The mouth isn't as creamy as it may look - very thin.

Guinness is my macro-brew beer of choice. It's not great, but it's not at all bad, and at such a low ABV, you can enjoy them all night without making a fool of yourself.

A- Beautiful appearance for a stout. Pours dark black fluid that shows a massive head that doesn't budge from the top of the beer. The off-white head leaves nice lacing on glass.

S- Very mild scents of coffee grinds, malts and maybe a little sweet brown sugar smells... that is all.

T- Better than the smell. Taste is a mix of black coffee, carmel malts and hints of milk-like flavors.

M-D- Mouthfeel is very nice. Has a very morning like coffee feel. That being said it is smooth like a wake up beer as coffee is to wakeing up in the morning. Milky feel rolls over the tongue..very easy. As drinkable as a dry stout gets. Highly recommended for massive drinking from pub pints! Add Strongbow for extra flavor.

12oz bottle with the widget, which did its thing and produced the appearance of a draft pour. The beer was a very dark brown with a thick off-white head. While the head diminished in size, it persisted throughout, and was very sticky. The beer had a vaguely roasted malt/coffee aroma, with a similar taste. If you've had some better stouts, you'd consider this a little timid, more like a Stout Lite. Still, not a bad beer.

Presentation: It was poured from a brown 12oz bottle with a plastic covering and label into a pint glass.

Appearance: It has a dark opaque color with a supper aggressive light brown bubbling action that takes a minute to settle out. (Very cool!) After it settles it forms a thick, supper creamy, tan head. Its head is stiff, has great retention time and leaves light tan rings of lace on the glass.

Smell: The aroma is of fresh baked bread and barely malt.

Taste/Mouth feel: Its flavor is smooth and buttery with some mild toasted and bready notes. The palate is smooth and a bit thin with a light to medium body and mellow carbonation. The finish is rather dry with some hop bitterness.

Notes: Defiantly one of the most recognizable stouts with that sweet looking head and deep dark color.

Well, I've certainly had this beer a number of times but I just had a pint at the local bar on St. Patrick's day (one of only two as DD!) at thought I'd give it a review finally.

Appearance- Comes off the tap looking good with a dark black body that lets in a little bit of light around the edges. About a half finger of creamy looking tan head sits onto of the beer for the entire time I'm drinking as well.

Smell- Really not a whole lot of noticeable smells on the nose of this beer. I can pick up some very mild roasted malts and that is about it.

Taste- Again, not a whole lot going on in the flavor department, though just a touch more than in the nose. Some mild roasted malt, a touch of soda cracker, and a dry astringency in the finish.

Mouthfeel/Drinkability- Mouthfeel is very thin and watery with mild carbonation but not enough to offset the thin body. The astringent finish of the beer doesn't help in this department either. In terms of drinkability, this beer goes down pretty easy but doesn't offer me a lot of reasons to keep drinking it.

Overall, I can understand the appeal of this beer but don't find it very appealing myself. I think it is thin and lacks enough complexity to make it a decent session beer. I actually prefer the Foreign Export version in the bottles without the widget and think that they have more flavor and better body. I'll have to put in another review next time I have the other version.

Taste, texture a little thin, more roast flavor. Thin roast. Hardly any hops. This is a good beer to rehydrate with, while looking like you're drinking something that is considered "really strong" by the average bystander around you. Totally the stuff scruffy soccer guy drinks.

Almost as if black food coloring fell into some flat and old Budweiser (but this has even less alcohol in it).

This one looks just like the original Guinness Draught for the most part, pitch black but somehow not very heavy-looking, the beauty being in the head. It's tight, creamy and compact, a tight tan crown just more than a full finger in height. It leaves exceptionally creamy lacing in thick rings and some heavy spotting between.
The aroma is a dark chocolate/toffee blend with a bit of char and some coffee, but with an almost burnt note to it.
The taste is similar, though it eases off on most of the astringency of the original. It's thin for a stout, but not as much given that it's in the original traditional, less monstrous style.
The feel of course offers lots of creaminess on the tongue and it flows like silk. It does have that thinness as well, though again style is in mind and it's not intended to be any kind of imperial stout. There is a slight grainy astringency in the finish.

Fairly light pour resulted in about a ½" head of fine bubbles almost like whipped egg whites (only tan, of course) that offer an unusual feeling while sipping, dark brown, almost opaque, head retention excellent, very good lacing. A little burning rubber, maybe a hint of molasses hits the nose. Letting it roll around in the mouth, taste is a bitterness akin to that of saffron, a little molasses and burnt sugar but not sweet, actually is somewhat on the dry side, an aftertaste that lingers. Mouthfeel is a little unusual due to the fine bubbles, seems to coat the mouth. Drinkability is okay, but a bit tiring.

Being what it is, Irish Dry Stout, it is not bad, just not one of my favourite styles. The stuff is Okay for an occasional visit but I prefer Extra Stout without the widget.